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St. Ives Suit Signals Potential Risk In Using Natural Microbead Alternatives

 
• By Lauren Nardella

If it’s successful, a class action against Unilever in California could pose a wider “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation for marketers of cosmetic cleansers. With plastic microbeads’ use in such products now banned in the US, companies are racing to replace the ingredients with natural exfoliants such as walnut shell powder, which the plaintiffs say is damaging to skin and unfit for use in St. Ives Apricot Scrub.

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A suit targeting St. Ives parent Unilever PLCcould open the door for waves of new litigation against cosmetic scrub marketers scrambling to replace banned plastic microbeads, or it may simply be the latest illustration of the plaintiffs bar’s creativity in pursuing cases against personal-care firms with deep pockets.

Filed Dec. 16 in California’s Central District Court, the complaint alleges that the crushed walnut shells in St. Ives’s Apricot Scrub – labeled as containing “100% Natural Exfoliants”...

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